Does anybody know which of these expressions originated first, or did they appear at about the same time? I suspect that one of them was coined to be the opposite of the other, which is why they alliterate. I just don’t know which one came first and which came second.
Which do you hear more often … “viscious circle” or “viscious cycle”? “Virtuous circle” or “virtuous cycle”?
Um, that’s vicious. Viscous means thick, like molasses. My WAG is that vicious circles came first, and that virtuous circle was coined in response.
“Vicious circle” came first. It was originally a term in logic designating a specious proof in which the second proposition depends on the first, but the first depends on the second. It has been part of the language since the Middle English period. The term later came to mean a situation in which the remedy makes the problem worse.
“Virtuous circle” was coined much later, after “vicious circle.”
Viscous? Wow, sounds like you and I got caught up in a vicious circle of misspelling. chuckle